Men's Basketball

Quick recap: No. 11 Kansas suffers 73-63 defeat at Texas

Texas forward Jaxson Hayes (10) blocks Kansas forward Mitch Lightfoot (44) as he tries to score during the first half on an NCAA college basketball game in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

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The streak is over.

Not KU’s streak of Big 12 regular-season titles, of course, as that remains intact for the moment. But Kansas’ dominating run against Texas came to an end Tuesday night in Frank Erwin Center.

The Longhorns led for all but nine seconds of their 73-63 win over the Jayhawks.

Kansas had won the previous 10 meetings with Texas, including an 80-78 victory on Jan. 14 in Allen Fieldhouse. It is the Longhorns' first win over the Jayhawks since Feb. 1, 2014.

With the loss, KU (16-5, 5-3 Big 12) has now lost three of its four road games to start the league slate. Meanwhile, Texas (12-9, 4-4 Big 12) snapped a two-game skid, which included a 98-88 loss to Georgia in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge this past weekend.

A 2-0 advantage out of the gate was KU’s only lead for the night. In a losing effort, freshman Ochai Agbaji led the way with 24 points. Dedric Lawson scored 13 points, while Lagerald Vick added 10. UT had four different players scored in double figures.

Here’s a quick look back at some of the action:

• The game turned when:

• Offensive highlight: On a night where the Jayhawks struggled on the offensive end, freshman Ochai Agabji was the lone bright spot.

Agbaji scored 14 of the first 30 points produced by the visitors. He finished off a pair of dunks in transition, including the team’s highlight play at the 1:41 mark in the first half. Marcus Garrett blocked a shot from behind, leading to a transition slam for Agbaji to trim the deficit to just one point at the time.

• Defensive highlight: It was a sloppy game for both teams during Tuesday’s tilt.

Kansas took advantage of some miscues by Texas to help manufacture some points on a night where it struggled to score. In fact, the Jayhawks scored 10 of their first 27 points off turnovers to stay within striking distance.

Early in the second half, freshman Quentin Grimes forced a turnover and it let to an alley-oop to Agbaji in transition.

Comments

Wow. Where did all our players go? It was like Agbaji with some limited support from Lawson and Vick, and not too much else. Watching Agbaji at least made it less depressing. He was outstanding. Hustle, free throws, 3 pt shots, dunks, steals, rebounds, and defense. It’s an uphill battle now, but looking to the future, it is nice to know that Agbaji and Dotson will for sure be back next year.

wow, that had to be one of the sloppiest KU outings in a while, and yet we were still in in late. I just chalk it up to all these freshmen we have out there and Dedric is really just playing his first season with us. That, and of course we are just getting killed by teams on the boards and in the paint. We have NO rim protector. Next year these freshman should be really good though.

The only positive we can take from this loss is Ochai Agbaji single-handedly keeping us in the game with his monster effort. Other than that, the team looked stale. Seriously, I've seen moldy bread that looked fresher than Kansas did tonight. It's almost as if the debacle at WVU shattered their confidence. They look unsure of themselves, lost, discombobulated, and like they're having no fun playing basketball. They are in the doldrums, and that's a bad place to be in when your next opponent, Texas Tech, is full of confidence after laying a 19-point smackdown on TCU.

Barry is so right! A group of young men playing their first year of KU Basketball with no Senior leadership. Vick May be a senior but needs to be benched. How many careless passes, poor shot selection, and absolutely no defense, can HCBS take until he benches Vick? Lightfoot if given the chance needs to step up, Charlie, Grimes, and KJ must be completely awesome in practice to keep stealing minutes. This team needs to Rally, and Rally quickly, but as in past years it may come down to Wins and Losses in the Big 12. You have to want it more than the rest of the league, and everyone will bring their A game when against KU.

2] The loss of both Dok and Silvio is having long range negative effects that I think are somewhat surprising in the scope that the team is being effected. We are not deep, we are not strong and we are not experienced. The price will continue to be paid on the road in the conference and may even show up at Allen. The Conference Title is in jeopardy, although not out of reach as of yet.

3] The one positive [or think of it as eight positives] is that eight of the top nine rotation players should all be back next year. Throw in Matt Hurt and, suddenly, Kansas is a juggernaut for 2019-2020.

4] Interesting how going to the zone kind of brought the Hawks back. [I'll bet it killed Bill to make that call!!].

5] Shaka got the formula - double Dawson, stick like glue to Vick, drive the paint and kick back out for threes. Texas played like crap except for the three pointers but they still dominated.

6] One positive is that this looks a year where anybody can beat anybody. Maybe KU can sneak into a conference tie???